1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to an electric component having a conductive pattern formed on a base material, a method of forming the conductive pattern, and an inkjet head using the electric component.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, in a case of forming a conductive pattern (e.g. electrode, wiring) on a base material (e.g. substrate), particularly, in a case of forming a fine sized conductive pattern, one example of such patterning method is an etching method using photolithography.
However, the patterning method using photolithography requires high cost and complicated steps (e.g. step of forming resist patterns, step of exposing/developing, step of etching with etching gas).
In these years, a printing method (e.g. forming fine conductive patterns with an inkjet method) is drawing attention as one example of a simpler method for forming conductive patterns at a low cost. For example, in a case of forming conductive patterns (e.g. wiring patterns), the printing method is simple and inexpensive compared to the photolithography method or the etching method. As one exemplary method of forming conductive patterns with the printing method, there is a method of forming patterns on a substrate (base material) with use of ink containing conductive materials (e.g. metallic nano ink).
However, in using the method of forming patterns on a substrate (base material) with use of ink containing conductive materials (e.g. metallic nano ink) it is difficult to form the patterns into a fine size. For example, in a case of using metallic nano ink on a substrate, the ink tends to spread when applied onto the substrate surface, to thereby make forming of fine sized patterns difficult.
One method that is proposed for resolving this problem is to form a lyophilic area and a liquid-repellant area on a substrate and utilize this difference of surface energy by forming conductive patterns of, for example, metallic nano ink only at the lyophilic area (See, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No.2004-170463). There is also another method of adjusting the water-repellant property of a substrate surface for preventing metallic nano ink from spreading on the substrate surface (See, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Nos.2004-6700, 2004-146796, and 2004-119479).
However, with the method disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No.2004-170463, the patterning process for forming the lyophilic area and the liquid-repellant area is complicated, expensive, and time-consuming.
The methods disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Nos.2004-6700, 2004-146796, and 2004-119479 require ink to have an increased contact angle with respect to the substrate surface for enhancing liquid-repellency. However, the enhancing of liquid-repellency (increasing of contact angle) causes the conductive patterns to lose adhering strength with respect to the substrate and makes it difficult to prevent the conductive patterns from separating from the substrate.